England Wins the War

Of France's former colonies, there remained only Guyana, Louisiana and Haiti, then called Saint-Domingue. It therefore agreed to a final effort to reinforce these colonies by sending 5,000 soldiers, escorted by a few of the warships remaining. At the same time, peace talks had begun. Probably in the hope of creating a diversion and retaking territory located close to the rich fisheries at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, a French fleet with 650 soldiers on board took St. John's, Newfoundland, in June 1762, to the great surprise of the British, who organized an expedition that enabled them to retake it in September. France thus lost the base it wanted near the fisheries. Meanwhile, its reinforcements arrived in its other colonies, which would remain French until the end of hostilities. Spain's entry into the war on the side of the French in 1762 did nothing to change the situation. The British and their allies had become too powerful. Their army and their naval forces were triumphant everywhere, and they eventually won the Seven Years' War.